It is known in the art of vehicle emissions and traffic handling devices to have a system mounted along a vehicle path, such as a lane of a roadway, that can detect various characteristics of passing vehicles. For example, such a system may include a vehicle emissions sensing device that includes a projector/receiver element that projects a light beam across the vehicle path, has it reflected back by a mirror on the other side of the vehicle path, and receives the reflected beam and processes the reflected beam to determine information regarding the emissions from the vehicle.
It is also known to have a vehicle speed and acceleration detecting system on the side of the roadway. Further, it is known to have a video camera placed on the side of the roadway capable of capturing video images of the vehicles, for example, to determine the license plate of the vehicle.
In the exemplary known arrangement described above, each of the three systems: (1) emissions; (2) speed and acceleration; and (3) camera, have been known to be each connected by a respective cable to various processing units that are located in a van positioned on the side of the road near the systems. It is known for the van to have a variety of data processing and data collection devices so that it receives data from each of the three systems and processes it in various manners. The van generally has a method for recording data while at a data gathering site, and is then driven to a central data processing facility in order for the data to be more fully processed at the central data processing facility.
Thus, in the known exemplary system described above, the van operator generally drives to an emissions testing site with all of the equipment including the three detection systems loaded in the van, then unloads these systems and must align them as necessary. The operator then remains with the van while the systems are operating and controls the systems and monitors the data collection while in the van. At the end of a prescribed time (i.e., a sensing session) the operator then disassembles the various sensing equipments from the roadway, loads them into the van, and drives to the central processing facility.
The known arrangement utilizing the van as described above has several disadvantages. One disadvantage is that the external vehicle (i.e., the van) takes up a significant amount of space on the side of the road. Additionally, this vehicle also can interfere with the normal flow of traffic, as motorists might slow down as they approach the van in order to see what activities are taking place on the side of the road. This has the unfortunate consequence of precluding proper testing of vehicles as they are normally driven. Further, the systems generally require an attendant at all times. Also, the cables used to connect the various devices to the van create clutter, are inconvenient, and susceptible to damage.
Moreover, the security of the systems would be desirable if made stronger. The software run in the equipment to make the equipment operate as desired needs to follow contemporary philosophies that blend well with software authoring tools in vogue. Additionally, the software architecture needs to be more flexible in its maintenance as newer versions of code are produced throughout the life cycle of the testing equipment, and be applicable to work across an entire network of information regarding sensed vehicles.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a system that reduces the size and mass of apparatus required for sensing and capturing vehicle data along the vehicle path such as a roadway. It is also desirable to have a convenient and secure device and method for processing sensed vehicle data and transmitting it to a central processing facility.